“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us.'” ― St. Anthony the Great

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Oliver Reed

Can somebody explain this? I do not understand it.

The original story is about Gerard Depardieu published on the Daily Mail. Depardieu is disparaging his native country. The story goes on about his Russian citizenship through his friendship with Vladimir Putin. When asked about his loyalty Depardieu says he is citizen of the world.

In my view, that is what happens when you become wealthy and famous for your talent, and fly all over the globe all the time. Your connection with your birthplace and with the circumstances that allowed for all that to happen tend to dissolve. One tends to become familiar with all of the lovely aspects of remote places while at the same time intimately aware all of all the negative aspects of your own home where you grew. So then, a superficial awareness of foreign loveliness and a deep comprehension of ugliness of intimate home.

Stick around for awhile and you'll see all the ugliness there is all around and home doesn't seem so bad after all. But you have to live long enough for that to happen and you have to not be so drunk for all that to sink through. Coupled with that is the truth, you can never go home again. You changed, and home changed. Changed happened all around and nobody can return to their perceived early state.

There are a lot of problems with France but making wine and stinky cheese for foreign tourists are not the most noticeable. Disparaging homebodies as afraid of foreigners does not address the issues they deal with that Depardieu flies above and around. Depardieu is not a serious person. Just another privileged world traveler with contempt for the societies that made his unique privilege possible.

So let's forget about privileged Gerard Depardieu for now. Another engaging actor, yes, he is not a serious person.

In comments to the Daily Mail article CHRJ in London says, "The French Oliver Reed. Brilliant!"

CHRJ returns, "Yes great aren't they. In the words of Ollie 'that's what people expect of me, I give people what they want'. [They] Dont make characters like them anymore in the acting world. So dull. RIP Ollie."

I do not know who Oliver Reed is. Apparently a similar type actor. Possibly very well known. Possibly increasingly drunk and similarly silly and disparaging and possibly grown fat and unlikeable as he aged. I'm imagining all that, based on the comment exchange. So I look up Oliver Reed and right off this video is shown in results. I do not understand any of it.

The Daily Mail article on Depardieu is headed with this photograph. Gosh, they are a bit similar.

Depardieu also says some very stupid things about Italy. In fairness he might have meant Italy is young demographically, not historically. But Italy is suffering the same immigration problems as France, so his remark is still quite thick. It seems to me. But hey, he's the world traveler after all, and I'm not.

A person who leaves their home can never make a home in a foreign land. Now for some that may be no great loss but for most expats there come moments of devastating emptiness and hollowness. Home is that place where when you have to go there they have to take you in. That's the famous definition. But there's much more to home than that. It's the place where you can read the others. And they can read you. Never happen in a foreign land. You lose the tribe. Again, some want to lose the tribe. Or so they think. But there comes a day.......

Oliver Reed made several Hammer horror movies, He was Bill Sykes in the movie Oliver and Athos in The Three Musketeers. He was in a couple Ken Russell movies. He had a very long career. He had a nasty encounter with David Letterman when he was on the late late show.

Depardieu became a citizen of the world when Francois Holland tried to impose a 70% income tax on all rich Frenchmen who weren't Francois Holland.

Depardieu over the years has become increasingly ugly. He's not afraid to expose his ugliness in some of his movie roles. That's commendable I guess. If I knew more about him, I'm sure I would find him objectionable, but he doesn't inspire that much interest.....Paul Newman and Robert Redford deserve a lot of credit for keeping their hair and flat stomachs even unto old age. Anyone can be good looking when young, but it takes real character to persevere through your seventies.